Holding Out For a Hero
by Nindyn
Summary: Heero and Duo dance around each other in the middle of familial discord. 1x2x1
1. Jealousy and Admiration

**Rating: R **

Warnings: Abuse, OOC, 1x2x1, AU

Disclaimer: The gundam boys don't belong to me. Rather, they belong to Bandai, and I'm just putting their likenesses to good use.

Duo frowned at his pre-calc book, holding it up so that it blocked his face from the teacher's view. He had planned to go to sleep, but the guy behind him kept bumping his desk, and the teacher kept talking, and there was all this rustling paper. Duo sighed and let his book fall to the desk, the spine connecting with the wood with a loud crack that made Duo wince. Everyone turned to look at him. Where before there had been so much noise, it was completely silent. No more rustling paper, no bumping, no droning on in a monotonous voice that buzzed in the back of his mind. No, Duo was the center of attention, however negative that attention was.

"Mister Maxwell!" Mrs. Reed frowned at him, her droning voice obviously also suited to much more piercing tones.

"Have I ever told you that I love your class, Mrs. R?" Duo put on a smirk, attempting to look debonair and failing. Mrs. Reed just glared at him.

"Yes. Now, if there aren't any more objections?" She turned back to the board, chalk-covered hands leaving smudges of gray against black.

"Heh."

Duo turned to look at Heero, almost glaring. Heero had been the one rustling paper. He had been doing it on purpose. Heero almost smiled in return, and Duo's expression intensified. However, he knew it still wasn't nearly as potent as Heero's patented death stare.

_'Stupid,'_ Duo thought, '_he aces this class without even thinking_...'So Duo was jealous...but who wasn't? It didn't really help that Heero was perfect at everything. And he wasn't just thinking that because he was jealous, either. The other boy never even had to _try_. It wasn't like Duo was failing, anyway. But he still had to think, had to stick out the tip of his tongue and mumble words of encouragement to himself, before he could write down an answer.

"Shut up, Heero." Duo hissed it out between white teeth, trying to be quiet. He failed.

"Maxwell!" Duo cringed, trying to shrink down into his desk and simply disappear. It just wasn't his lucky day. Or maybe it was: the second Mrs. Reed opened her mouth, the bell rang, far more sharp a sound than even her grating voice.

"Thank you!" He grabbed his books up from the dusty floor with a fluid motion, jumping out of his desk at the same time. He raced out of class, throwing a "maybe next time" over his shoulder.

oOoOoOoOoOooOoOoOoOoOo

"You know, Duo, if you tried paying attention..."

"Yeah, Yeah."Duo batted his hand at Trowa's bangs. "But who cares? And how will it help me in life, anyway?" Trowa began to reply, and Duo saw it coming. "It won't, okay?" Duo looked past the other boy and grinned. "Hey, 'Fei!"

"Don't call me that. It's Wufei or Chang. Not some other bastardization that you come up with all by your lonesome." Wufei looked at Duo with clear disapproval as he walked up to the group.

"Whatever, Mary Manners." Duo held his hands up in mock defeat, then pointed to a blond boy who was shifting his weight from foot to foot behind Wufei. "Who's your friend?"

"I'll assume this is Duo?" The blond boy smiled congenially, offering his hand. "Quatre Winner. Pleased to meet you. All of you." Quatre offered his hand to each of them, save Wufei. And Duo and Trowa shook, the latter keeping his hold on the other's hand for a breath longer than normal. Heero only bowed his head, muttering a greeting to Quatre.

"Way to act weird, Heero." Duo nudged Heero, pushing Trowa in the process. Trowa, usually a very graceful person, stumbled forward a few steps. Still, it was a very graceful stumble.

"You'll have to excuse their rudeness. Mostly Duo's. He's been flirting with Heero since freshman year." Trowa grinned at Quatre, whom he was considerably closer to since the stumble.

"I have _not!_"

Quatre laughed. He liked these four, and wasn't so intimidated by the new school anymore.

oOoOoOoOoOooOoOoOoOoOo

Quatre walked into the art room, late and carrying a note from the hall monitor in his hand. He had gotten lost somewhere between the chemistry lab and the fine arts wing. The purple slip was handed to the art teacher who told him to take a seat and read the assignment on the board before handing him a four by six piece of linoleum. He searched for a friendly face as the teacher smiled at him and then turned away. And he found one, seeing Duo's braid coiled up like a snake on a table in the back of the room. The brunette was carving deeply into his own block of linoleum, his knuckles white with the effort before he sat up and used the nearby iron to heat the block up. He then returned to his work, not seeing Quatre as the other sat down next to him.

"Hey, Duo!"

Duo jumped, jabbing the linoleum cutter into his hand.

"God damn it!" He quickly grabbed for a paper towel, wrapping up his palm. He then shook his head at the spreading red. Like ink bleeding through. He studied the growing stain for a moment, then smiled at Quatre, albeit weakly. "You scared me, Quatre!" He chuckled uneasily.

"I'm so sorry! Are you okay!"

"No, really, it was my fault. My hand should have been behind the blade–"

"Does it hurt?" Quatre looked ready to cry. " I'm really sorry."

"Nah. Don't worry about it." He hissed as Quatre's finger brushed over the wound through the paper. Quatre looked him in the eyes, dubious. "Seriously. Don't worry."

Duo forced a grin, returning to his work. "Just give me the chance to return the favor, okay?" He waved the blade at Quatre, twisting it menacingly. But he wasn't serious, and Quatre laughed under his breath. The blond then went to work himself, and the rest of the class was spent carving with Duo occasionally attempting to fake Quatre out. He was very successful, even gaining a few squeals for his efforts.

oOoOoOoOoOooOoOoOoOoOo

Duo left class laughing, an arm around Quatre's shoulder's.

"And my only question is this: how can you compare porn to peanut butter on toast? I mean, come on!" He pulled Quatre closer, making them both veer to the left, then steered hem both to Heero's locker. At Quatre's raised eyebrow, he shrugged. "I just have to get my lunch money."

"You keep it in Heero's locker?"

"No...that'd be silly. Heero has it. I don't want to lose it, you know? He'll be here in a couple of seconds..." Duo jumped up, trying to see over the heads of a sea of underclassmen, looking for Heero. So he got quite a shock when Heero came up behind him and tapped his shoulder, almost falling on the Japanese boy.

"Jeez, Heero! You almost scared me half to death. You need a trumpet to announce yourself or something...Ninjas are louder than you!"

"Here." Heero handed Duo a crisp five dollar bill. Duo took it, then frowned.

"I only gave you two bucks to hold, man."

"I know."

"So I didn't think I was opening a high-yield savings account. I mean, what kind of interest is this!" Duo's grin was strained.

"I...owe you. Remember?"

"No."

"Well, I do."

"No, you don't."

"I do. What happened to your hand?"

Duo glanced at his poorly bandaged hand and frowned, though he was glad for the interruption in their fight. "Nothing."

Heero took his hand and looked it over, carefully unwrapping the taped-on paper towels.

"Don't lie to me."

Quatre glanced between the two and wondered if he should intervene.

"I had an accident in art, okay? " Duo was grumbling. "No serious damage. It isn't important."

"It's important to me," Heero murmured.. Quatre's eyes widened, but he kept silent. Duo blushed, finally taking the money.

The three then walked into the cafeteria with Quatre settling by Trowa easily while Duo and Heero seated themselves to the right of Wufei, their backs to the wall. Trowa was reading a book, and nodded to them all in acknowledgment before delving back into it. His hands blocked the title. Wufei mumbled a hello, poking his jell-o with a fork.

"If it's possible, I think that jell-o just glared at you. Menacingly." Duo snickered at his own joke before leaving the table to go through the lunch line himself. When he returned, he placed his change beside Heero's hand, which held an apple with a few bites taken out of it. "Here you go, buddy!" He faked a smile as he opened his coke can.

"Duo. I gave this to you." Heero looked down at the money, nudging it back toward Duo, slightly annoyed.

"Well...I don't need it." Duo replied.

"You do, Duo!" Heero's grip on the apple tightened.

"No I _don't_!" Duo stood up, slamming his can down. Dark amber liquid sloshed out of the mouth of the can, spreading along the indented circle inside the rim.

"Yes, Duo, you do. I know you do." Heero was very quiet, and Trowa and Wufei, who had previously been attempting to distract themselves and Quatre, looked up at the sound of Heero's voice. "Duo. Please, just take it and sit down."

"I don't need hand-outs from anyone! I'm fine!" Duo glanced down at Heero, who shook his head. Trowa cleared his throat, and the brunette turned to him.

"Perhaps, then...you shouldn't make such a big deal of it?"

"What is this?" Duo sat down again, but only because Mrs. Reed was glaring at him from the teacher's table. "Some kind of Spanish inquisition?" His expression was tense.

"Um...Duo..." Quatre began, but Wufei laid a hand on his shoulder and shook his head. "Ok." He whispered.

"Don't be so proud." Wufei finally spoke up, after a moment of Duo simply glaring at Heero. "He'll hold it until tomorrow. You can use it then."

Duo was still far from pleased, but nodded his head, hunching over his tray.

"I'll keep it in my locker." Heero said, still quiet.

Quatre looked at each other four in turn, and he felt the tension close in on him. It was claustrophobic.

"So..uh...Trowa! Guess what we're doing in art?" He turned to the taller teen,. Wufei gave a nod of approval, glad for the change in topic. Quatre smiled and waited for Trowa's answer as the other closed his book, marked his page, and slid the book into his bag.

"Hm...still life?"

"Nope! Wufei?"

"Self-portraits?"

Quatre shook his head. "Heero?"

"...nude photo shoot?"

Duo snorted, spitting out coke that splattered onto the table. Trowa was glad he'd put his book away–it had been in the line of fire.

"God, Heero! Get out of the gutter! ...there isn't room for both of us."

Quatre smiled as the tension dissipated and Heero smirked.

"I have you to blame."

"Oh. Well...hey yeah, I guess you do!" Duo's mood was considerably brighter. He seemed to have completely forgotten the previous argument. He grinned, throwing his arms around Heero's waist, cheek against the Japanese boy's neck. Heero visibly stiffened, square shoulders suddenly tense.

"Anou, Duo.."

"What?" Duo picked his head up, the word puffing out of his mouth and hitting Heero's lips. Their noses were almost touching. Heero blushed, then turned his head a few degrees.

"People are staring."

"Frankly, dear, I don't give a damn!" Duo laughed.

"That's so cute!" Quatre laughed as well,

"Let them stare!" Duo had clearly forgotten everyone else. He was so close to Heero...to his lips, his tongue...Duo could feel Heero's breath against his own lips, could almost taste...

Someone cleared their throat in front of them, and Duo was jolted back to the present as Heero's attention shifted away. It was Relena Peacecraft, Heero's childhood sweetheart. They had been inseparable...until Duo had moved into the city. Well...until Duo had a home in the city.

"Sorry to interrupt...but did either of you get the chemistry homework?"

"Interrupt what, Relena? Hehe...nothing going on here! Duo put his hand behind his head, hastily rediscovering his previously abandoned Coca-Cola.

"Read pages 643 through 652 and do the review at the end of each section." Heero's cheeks were still pink.

Relena smiled at Duo. "No...nothing going on at all." Quatre leaned back to see past Trowa and get a good look at the girl. "Hey, who's the new guy?"

"I'm Quatre Winner." He rose, offering his hand.

"Relena Peacecraft. Pleased to make your acquaintance, and pardon my daring but, are you related to the head of Winner Industries?"

"He's...my father, actually. I'd ask how you knew, but..."

"Hey, there can only be one Winner, right?" Duo found his own pun incredibly amusing, earning a deadpan look from Wufei.

"At any rate, I didn't come over here to talk about family and I've got a lunch to get back to...so thanks. And nice meeting you, Quatre." She waved politely, then found her way back to her own table.

"The bell's about to ring." Heero observed.

"You guys want to hang out tonight?" Duo slung his arm around Heero's shoulders, much like he had Quatre earlier.

"Sure, Duo!" Quatre immediately chimed in.

"Great, where?"

"Your house?" Heero smirked, and Duo bit his lip. Why would anyone want to go _there_?

"There isn't much to do there...we can only stay in the garage and my room on top of it."

"You live above the garage? Sounds awesome!" Quatre either hadn't seen the challenge in Heero's face, or he had no idea of what was going on.

"Then it's settled." Heero said. He glanced at Duo. "Your place at about...five?"

Duo nodded a bit solemnly, the others agreed, and the bell rang, as if on cue.

oOoOoOoOoOooOoOoOoOoOo

"Jeez...it's always hot in there!" Duo wiped a thin layer of sweat off of his forehead.

"Only because it's a kitchen!" Hilde smirked and carried a tray of egg rolls out to table twelve. "Hey! Look alive...your order for three is up!"

Duo groaned, forcing himself back into the kitchen through swinging doors. "These people had better appreciate this...so much grease...all over my hair..." He muttered to himself, balancing the large, round tray on one hand until he reached the table, the old lady smiling at him, thanking him and then looking fondly at her husband, who nodded at him. "Please let me know if there's anything else I can do for you!"

After refilling drinks, Duo leaned against the counter, unbuttoning his over shirt. The stupid shirt had cost him twelve bucks, and then had the nerve to keep him from cooling off...as Wufei sometimes said when he got riled up, it was an injustice. Duo sighed, fixing himself a drink., then went to work cleaning the table that the elderly couple had just left. His back was to the door as he pushed the cloth he was using to wipe the table down into the far corner. He was reaching across the lacquered tabletop, shirt grazing the shiny surface. He then stood up straight, collecting the glasses and plates he had moved to the edge of the table, the steel teapot, still warm, clinking against the glasses in a sharp way.

He turned, then almost dropped everything when he saw Heero, Trowa, Wufei, and Quatre standing behind him. Heero stepped forward, taking the plates from Duo.

"You shouldn't be working."

"Why not?"

"I...your grades."

"What about them? I'm still passing, aren't I?" Duo tried to take the plates back, heedless to the fact that he was ruining his pristine white shirt with various sauces.

"Duo...let me help you." Heero whispered, and Duo fought down a blushed that was brought on by the other's voice alone. He tried to hide it, failed, and finally managed to get the plates back. Neither one of them seemed to realize that the sauce had also dripped onto the floor, not just on Duo. So when Duo went to turn towards the kitchen, he was really walking into a trap set by his own clumsiness. He slipped, and Heero was there to catch him, and the steel teapot too. The Japanese boy took the opportunity to take the tray of dishes from Duo, handing it to Hilde before placing the teapot on it as well.

"Thanks, Heero." Duo was blushing again, Heero's arms were tight around his waist, holding him close to the other. And just as Duo looked up, Heero looked down, and the timing was perfect. Perfect, like Heero at everything. Their lips met softly, briefly, gently brushing, and Duo gasped. Heero immediately broke the contact, blushing even harder than Duo. He help Duo stand on his own, then looked at his feet. "You okay?"

"M'fine, Heero."

Standing back with Trowa and Quatre, Wufei ineffectively withheld a smirk while Trowa's shoulder shook with suppressed laughter. Quatre looked at Heero and Duo and coughed quietly.

"Shall we pretend we didn't see that?" He asked.

"It would be best for now." Wufei nodded.

"Unfortunately." Trowa finished. Quatre looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"So um..." Duo pulled his braid over his shoulder, trying not to blush and failing miserable. Heero's lips had been so soft...and his fingers had left a tingling sensation behind them. " I'm actually getting off now. I mean..." Duo's large eyes went even wider. "Uhm...ready? Okay let's go."

Quatre politely hid his laughter behind one hand.

"Quite, Duo." Heero put his hand on the small of Duo's back, pushing the other forward gently. Duo swallowed thickly at the contact. Wasn't he supposed to be the one seducing Heero? When had things changed?

oOoOoOoOoOooOoOoOoOoOo

"Okay. Just–remember to stay quiet so that Michael doesn't wa–hey...dad!" Duo was halfway through the door, grinning sheepishly at his father.

Michael was an adoptive father. A thin man with dark hair, he was generally a good human being. Except around Duo. He frightened Duo, at least ever since his wife had died. He was quietly predatory man of refined taste, and that would have been understandably intimidating, but not cause for alarm, except that his taste seemed to be for Duo. When thought out, it was obvious why: Duo was a symbol for Michael's dead wife, a vestige of her will to do good things and it would only be natural for a man to hold tightly to anything left behind by the only woman he had ever loved. But it stopped being natural when he hit Duo. It didn't happen often, only when Duo was trying to leave, or began to grow distant. And it only got worse if he argued or screamed or cried.

"You're home early. You brought friends."

"Yes sir. We're...just going to the garage. We'll be quiet, I promise."

"Be sure of it." The man stepped aside, but just barely, leaving just enough room for the teenagers to slip past him. His eyes followed Duo, narrowed carefully. But Duo ignored the sensation of holes being bored into his skull, leading his friends through the side door.

Once through, he took a deep breath. " Well. Could've cut that tension with a knife! Ha!" His laughter was flat, and it fell into an oppressive silence.

"Duo...how is he related to you?" Quatre finally piped up, "he looks nothing like you."

"He's my adoptive father."

"I don't really...I mean...he's different."

Even Heero looked uncomfortable, and he usually tried not to let things about Michael phase him. He shifted closer, fingers finding the edge of Duo's sleeve.

"I don't like him either, Quatre." Heero's eyes narrowed and went to the door as though he knew that Michael just behind it.

"What I wouldn't give to just..." Wufei trailed off, thinking about horrible things that could happen to horrible people.

"We know." Trowa said quietly. "But we didn't come here for Michael."

"This time." Heero muttered darkly. Duo's fingers brushed against his.

"It isn't that bad..." Duo grinned weakly, pulling his braid over his shoulder and breaking contact with Heero. "Let's not worry about it."

Quatre nodded slightly, taking his mind off of Michael by looking around. The garage had a tile floor, three windows, and an entire kitchen and bathroom in the back. There was a worn couch in the corner that had sen much better days, and a set of pull-down stairs leading into a dark room.

"What's up there?" Quatre tried to see into the darkness.

"My room. Come on..I'll show you around." Duo pushed Quatre up the stairs, which protested under their combined weight. They were old stairs, and the teenagers were far from small. But when all five reached the top, Duo pushed Quatre into the dark. No, the near dark, because the room was dimly lit be black lights that lined the walls. Duo reached across Quatre to the wall, fingers flipping the light switch. The black walls still absorbed much of the light, but the white pinstripes stood out starkly, as did the bright white ceiling. The floor was plain wood that had once been shiny with varnish that had since worn down and away. Duo's bed was nothing more than a mattress lying on the floor with his clothing folded at the foot. There was also a small T.V. on a shaky table, and a much sturdier table that was littered with supplies and had a desk chair in front of it. The chair had been clumsily been repaired by Duo with black duct tape. Duo's laptop stuck out from under his pillow.

"Well?" Duo shifted slightly.

"Duo, your room is cool! I love the black lights!" Quatre moved his hand close to one, feeling the heat.

Duo heaved a sigh of relief.

"Maxwell...you sleep with your laptop?" Wufei smirked.

"Well, you know...late night activities..." Trowa chuckled.

Du blushed, while Quatre played innocent. :Shut up, Trowa! It's not like that, and you know it!"

Heero stood beside Duo. "We talk online."

"Oh." Quatre nodded.

"Yeah." Trowa smirked, trading looks with Wufei.

"Talk." Wufei said, forming air quotes.

"Yes, _talk_. Sometimes for hours. Helps him sleep." Heero replied.

"Not about..you know...just...nonsense, really." Duo smiled.

Heero and Duo traded a look of their own, and Trowa nudged Quatre, a smile on his face.

"Hey, Duo, sorry, man, but Wufei, Quatre and I have to motor."

"Where to?" Quatre questioned.

"That thing," Trowa replied with a meaningful look.

"Yeah. That thing...at that place." Wufei added.

"I don't..." Quatre started.

"Damn it, Quatre! Just go!" Wufei said as he dragged the blond down the stairs.

Trowa smirked. "See you guys." He waved, then disappeared down the stairs as well.

"That was..." Heero began.

"Really weird." Duo finished.

"They think we.." Heero was blushing slightly.

"Yeah right. Like that'd happen." Another awkward silence, which had previously been so rare.

"So, um.." Duo looked at the floor.

"Have you drawn anything new?" Heero asked, changing the subject.

"Yeah, actually. It's been hectic, you know, but I managed!" Duo perked up, grabbing his sketchbook from his art table. The cover was battered, duct taped to oblivion, and yet still falling off. He flipped it open to a page, then opened it and showed it to Heero. "I think it's really fluffy, you know, but..." He shrugged.

Heero studied it, and smiled. A young girl in a white sun dress and a broad straw hat sat in a field of crocuses with a puppy which was curled up beside her, asleep.

"It's gorgeous. I like her expression."

"Elysian, eh, Heero?"

"Yeah." Heero studied the page closely, trying, after a few moments, to see through it and onto the next page. He could make out only the faintest of outlines. "May I look through the rest?"

"No." The answer was abrupt, and Duo's fingers tightened on the book. Where before they had only lent support, they then pulled back.

Heero frowned. "Why not?"

"It's...the pictures are...this is my private thing...okay?" Duo ground it out, almost like a lie. But Heero knew Duo didn't lie.

"I...you know you can always show me anything. Right?"

"Yeah, Heero. This is just..I don't think--"

"–I'd understand?" Heero smiled, the corners of his mouth tilted up just barely. His fingers, at least three shades darker than Duo's, touched American boy's lightly in a ghosting touch. Duo bit his lip, that tingling was back.

"I could understand anything you were willing to explain." Heero seemed to have moved closer, but Duo hadn't seen him move.

"I'm just not ready to explain yet, okay?" And Duo broke the contact, almost instantly missing the warmth.

"I can understand that, too. For now." Heero pushed the sketchbook closer to Duo, taking a step in. Duo got an intense sense of foreboding.

"Heero?" Dark blue eyes–he'd even venture so far as to call them cobalt–looked straight at him. Duo noticed, for the first time, that he and Heero were almost exactly the same height. The Japanese boy had always seemed shorter, but Duo had obviously not paid enough attention. That didn't make any sense, though...because Duo always paid attention to Heero.

Duo's thoughts went back to what he hadn't let Heero see: twenty-seven pages of the Japanese boy's likeness. Scruffy hair, almond shaped eyes, and that thin face, so structured. Except for the hair, Heero was so controlled. So graceful. Perfect. There was that word again, like still, clear water with goldfish swimming just under the surface.

He had been backing up, and his heels hit the mattress that was on the floor. Duo wavered, trying to catch his balance, and Heero grabbed his arms. With a soft thump, the two landed on the bed. Heero's breath caught in his throat as he gazed down at the boy under him. Their bodies were perfectly aligned: hip to hip, shoulder to shoulder. Duo's eye's sparkled and his cheeks were flushed. Heero watched Duo's tongue flick out and lick the braided boy's lips. A thought of what Duo would taste like popped into his head, causing electricity to course through him at the mental image.

"So..this is awkward." Duo whispered reverently. There seemed to be a moment going on, and he didn't want to shatter it. "But comfortable."

Heero smiled, leaning down so that their foreheads touched. "Yeah."

"I wonder if Trowa knew this would happen," Duo joked.

"We'll have to ask if he's psychic tomorrow." Heero replied. "But..Uh..as comfortable as this is, maybe we should get up?"

"Why?" Duo was confused. Didn't Heero know about the moment?

"Michael." Heero sighed, and Duo closed his eyes. So Heero did know. He knew both the moment and the threat, and the existence of the latter made him frown.

"Heero, he's in the living room. I can..." Duo leaned up so that their noses touched. "..hear the..." he could taste Heero's breath, wanted to steal it... "...T.V..." The last millimeter disappeared, and Heero's lips _were_ soft and tasted like peppermint chap stick. Duo's head fell back, Heero's hands on either side, fingers digging into brown hair. Duo was all oranges and lavender from chewing citrus gum and sucking on pastilles he'd bought in some convenience store. He was sweet, but with a tartness that bordered on bitter. Heero relaxed, felt Duo breathe in and out of him, and he was breathing for them both, and it felt like being one without completion and it must have been nirvana and then a door slammed, and it all went shattering down.

Duo freaked, pushing Heero off of him, running for his desk and chair with panicked steps. He threw his pre-calculus at Heero's head, and it was caught between tan hands. He was asking for number forty-two just as Michael came up the stairs.

"Hey...dad." Duo stumbled over the words as he turned to see Michael glaring at him with those dark eyes. He tried to look defiant, if only for Heero's sake.

"I thought that your friends would remember the way to the door." Cold, and nothing like the man he had once been.

"Yeah. I was just about to get Heero outta here...Heero...you should be getting home, right?" The defiance was gone the second he opened his mouth, and Heero looked somewhat hurt, then bewildered, because Duo knew that he would protect him, right? "Down the stairs and all. You remember, Heero. And hey, call Wufei for me, would you?" Duo's eyes shifted to Heero for the briefest, most intense of moments. Heero nodded, almost understanding.

"Thanks, man."

Heero showed himself to the door, leaving Michael and Duo alone. He cursed himself for doing so, but didn't know what other action he could take. And when the front door fell into place in his wake, so did Duo.

He had forgotten, over the three days since he had been home, just how hard the floor was, and how loud Michael could be, how Michael said he looked just like his wife, Akaino, except that he wasn't dead. Yet. Michael always added that, and he was so menacing with dark circles under his eyes from lack of sleep. The man had obviously never gotten quite that far obviously, so Duo took the beating, blindly trusting in Michael's lack of courage. In a way, he was glad for a few bruises...but only because they were all he got. At least there wasn't any real rape. At least Michael didn't hit his face. Usually. But not this time. Michael was angrier than that.

"You kissed him." A fist in Duo's face and blood dripping from his nose, sliding back into his throat and burning. Duo remembered, from Chemistry, that blood was acidic. He imagined it just covering him and melting him away, first a red hole in his neck, a slow stretching and spreading of space, more red, red, _crimson_, more burning, more spitting and screaming. No, no screaming. To scream, one needed a voice, and that was long beaten out of him.

And Duo surfaced and missed the cold, clear, perfect water. There were no goldfish in Michael. Duo figured he was in shock. He couldn't open his right eye, but Michael was gone. He could hear an insistent beeping, saw a green LED flashing at him. He crawled over to his cell phone, picked it up and dripped on the silver casing.

"Wufei." A hoarse word.

"Are you okay?"

"Don't tell, Wufei. Don't tell."

"I never have."

"They don't know?"

"They are our friends...they're worried but...they only assume."

"And that makes an ass out of you and me, right?" A chuckle, then gagging and coughing and spitting up blood that had slid too far. And Wufei, two houses away and yet so far, shook his head with the profound realization that this was simply one of those situations where things couldn't stay the same but change could hurt even more. None of them had the controls of this thing.

"Duo." His voice was soft, fuzzing out over the line due to poor reception, "go somewhere."

"Where? There aren't any vacancies for me."

"Not even at Heero's?"

"Please, don't tell him." So pleading. Duo was reduced to begging, desperately clinging to what little he had. Wufei sighed again, and he nodded even though Duo couldn't see. He said goodbye. "Bye, Wufei."

Duo curled up on his black sheets and stared at the ceiling and the black walls with black lights and waited for it all to swallow him. He would have died to be empty then. Empty of hurt, of suffering, of mental anguish...Empty of everything he hated, even if all the good was taken from him, too.

Empty, even if it meant he was alone.

"Heero." To the stark white ceiling, which swallowed the name greedily, but refused to take him along.

oOoOoOoOoOooOoOoOoOoOo

Duo woke stiff, and stayed tense on top of the sheets before he remembered that it was Saturday, and he didn't have school or work, or any obligations at all. And then he looked for what had woken him, and realized that he couldn't. At least, not out of his right eye...it was swollen shut, and he knew he should have cleaned it. Or at least tried to find a good excuse. Not 'I got hit by a door,' because it was too obvious, and not 'My father beats me,' for the same reason. He decided that he had gotten in a car accident. He'd left right after Heero, escaping Michael just barely. Escape...as if that was plausible, but none of the others would know, as long as he worked the rest of the stiffness out. He repeated the lie to himself for a long time before he accepted it as truth, what really happened almost fading away entirely. He then held two truths inside of him, two paradoxical truths. It hurt his head to focus on the idea, so he closed his good eye, completely missing the fact that his cell phone was blinking at him insistently.

Across the city, Heero folded his own cell phone closed with a loud snap, and started his car. Duo always picked up his phone. Always for Heero. Or at least called him back immediately, but that wasn't the case this time. So Heero pushed down the clutch, shifting into first gear from neutral, and gunning the gas so that the engine responded with a loud growl. Shifted into second, third, fourth, then overdrive, clearly breaking the speed limit of thirty-five but also extremely lucky. He arrived at Duo's in record time, and didn't knock when he reached the door. He burst into the house, and Michael rose from his position on couch, startled by the intrusion. Heero ignored him, running into the garage, up the stairs, to Duo's side.

Gentle fingers went to Duo's face. It was a beautifully tragic shape, a heart tinted black and blue, and Heero traced the other's hairline softly, so as not to wake him with pain. Duo's right eye was purple and swollen shut, yellow-brown around the edges like an old banana. Heero looked back to see Michael standing in the doorframe, superior in his expression.

"You bastard." Under Heero's breath, and Duo stirred.

"Heero?"

"Shh. You're hurt...a black eye...where else?" Heero placed his hands on Duo's shoulders, and the other boy hissed as the heels of Heero's palms connected with the hollows between shoulder and breastbone.

"Pretty much everywhere." Duo tried to laugh, but ended up only wincing. "I'll be fine."

"No you won't. Not here. You're leaving with me."

"Why do you want him so badly?" Michael asked. "He'll just leave you, too. He'll steal from you, you know. Use you and your resources until there is nothing left."

"Like he did you?" Heero shook his head. "Your house is too nice. If Duo had conned you, you'd be living in a box like you deserve."

Michael frowned. "He'll come back. He's run away before, you see. And he always comes back."

Duo frowned and began to speak, but Heero silenced him, picking the other boy up. The long braid dangled to the Japanese boy's knee, the end tapping it when he walked past Duo's father.

"Hold your breath." Heero said over his shoulder, walked down the stairs calmly, then carried Duo all the way to his car. "I'll keep you safe."

"Who told you? Wufei?" Duo didn't open his eyes.

"He knew?" Heero's lips were set in a thin line. "No, he didn't tell me. You didn't answer your phone and, Duo, we're not stupid."

"Michael didn't...take me back, Heero. It wasn't bad."

"What are you talking about? 'Not bad'?"

"He didn't rape me or anything...I'll be okay. Take me back."

"You've been watching too much T.V. or something, Duo...just because he didn't rape you...It isn't okay. You aren't okay, Duo. You're coming home with me." Heero leaned over the other, buckling him into the passenger's seat before walking around the car and securing himself. He then drove much more carefully home and carried Duo into his room, lying him gently on the red covers. Duo had fallen asleep again. "You aren't okay. But I'll make sure you will be."


	2. Return to Reality

Duo woke to the sound of a fan's blades cycling through the air, opened his good eye to see the wood circling, focused on one blade and followed it with his good eye until he began to get a headache. He could hear Heero's muffled voice coming from out in the hall, but couldn't make out any words, just a low kind of rumble. His right eye was still swollen, but better than he remembered it being... there was no throbbing, insistent pain. Duo could see an improvised ice pack to his left, water seeping out of the corners of a zip lock bag and then through layers of paper towels, liquid tendrils spreading out towards him as though reaching.

"Heero..." Duo smiled, knowing that the Japanese boy must have stayed at his side ever since he'd taken Duo from Michael. It was cute, to picture the other worried enough. To imagine that the other cared for him that much.

"Yes?" Heero stepped into the room, softly closing the door behind him with one hand, snapping his cell phone closed with the other. Duo shook his head. "Well, I was talking to Trowa...I didn't mean for you to wake up alone."

"It's okay."

"You might be able to stay with him."

Duo frowned slightly, a little hurt.

"You mean, I can't stay here?"

"No, I just...I wanted to give you the option. And he lives all the way across town. It would be safer."

"I'm not going to let you lock me away in some safehouse, Heero. Not when I've got the best bodyguard right here." Duo was hopeful again, but his emotion fell into a kind of depression. "It isn't like Michael will come after me, anyway. I could be at Wufei's and he'd leave me there. Once you leave, you can never come back."

Heero frowned, getting down on his knees and kneeling beside Duo.

"I don't want to give him the opportunity to touch you ever again." Tentative fingers went to Duo's collarbone, and Duo realized that he didn't have a shirt on and that Heero had bandaged his ribs. Heero's long fingers circled around a purple bruise that had blossomed in the hollow of his shoulder. "He almost broke you."

Heero looked up from Duo's chest, into the other's eyes, and smiled softly. It was a small expression, tender and fragile, and it was gone in an instant. Heero stood up, tossing the leaking ice pack to Duo, who caught it before it could splash against his bare arm.

"I'm cooking eggs. How do you like yours?"

oOoOoOoOoOo

Duo walked down the stairs, humming to himself. It was quite a journey for him—he hadn't known that he was quite so tired, and that surprised him. He had always known just how far he could push himself, and yet, here he was, completely at a loss as to how much longer he would be able to stand. Of course, that might have been less to do with his bruises and more to do with the fact that he was wearing Heero's clothes, but either way, the uncertainty was still there. He walked into the kitchen, breathing a sigh of relief when he rested his weight on the doorframe.

"Hey..I borrowed some of your clothes...that's okay, right?" For all that they were best friends, Heero was still sometimes a mystery, and Duo didn't know how the Japanese boy would react to Duo literally getting in his pants. Heero looked up from the frying pan, studied Duo for a moment, then nodded, returning his attention back to the eggs.

"It's fine." Duo smiled at this, then shifted his weight. "You can go sit on the couch. I'll bring it to you."

"Oh...thanks, Heero."

"You're welcome."

Duo sat down so that he was perfectly centered in the middle of the couch, and for a few minutes, he simply sat still, uncomfortable. He hadn't really ever been to Heero's house...at least not for more than a few minutes. The other always decided that they should go somewhere, or Duo would insist on the same, pulling Heero along. While he was thinking about it, Duo realized that he had never really seen Heero's parents, either. He knew that Heero was eighteen, and therefore legally an adult, but so was WuFei, and he still lived with _his_ family.

Duo frowned at the blank screen of the television, scrutinizing his reflection. Everything was reduced to grays and blacks, but the contrast of his bruises against his skin was still remarkable. He watched Heero bringing out two plates of food, and took the one offered to him without looking away from the empty box.

"Thanks, Heero." Duo shoveled his eggs into his mouth in his characteristic way, practically inhaling them in spite of his physical condition. "You know, for the eggs, the clothes, and...uhm...everything." He smiled, moving his index finger over the china plate to catch the extra salt before sticking it in the mouth.

Heero nodded, having barely touched his own eggs. Sunny side up, with hard-cooked yolks...Duo marveled that Heero could make something so runny and gooey into something that was dry enough that it had to be taken with water. Like a pill. Like a necessity. There seemed a tightness between them, like the strings of a guitar tuned too tightly...as if a single stroke would cause metal to snap back and bruise them both. Heero was looking at Duo, studying him, with some kind of hopeless expression on his own face.

"Duo...why'd you let him?"

He hadn't expected a question like that. One that made him stand up to his motto. _I run, I hide, but I never lie._ Funny, he'd been lying a lot, recently. Duo looked down at his empty plate. Empty plate, empty promise.

"I...I guess...I kind of...I deserved it." Duo nodded, standing up, something in him screaming that he was a liar, liar, pants on fire, but it wasn't a lie, damn it, because he didn't _know_ why. Why climb the tallest mountain? Why write a book? Why ever do anything or why let anything happen? Because it's there, because he could, because it was easier. There, that was it. He deserved it because he let it happen. He let it happen because it was easier than doing something.

He felt such self-loathing at the revelation, at that discovery that he was that lazy, so low as to allow himself to be pushed even farther down.

"Excuse me for a moment." Spoken through clenched teeth, and he was walking to the kitchen, rinsing a plate he had already gone over once with his fingers. It was a routine. He let the hot water scald his fingers, and everything was far too hot. Hot, like fire that burned like acid that was made of blood that covered and cleaned and eradicated the infection that was himself. And when Duo opened his eyes, he was facing the cabinet under the kitchen sink and he was crying. He could see Heero's reflection in the stainless steel, how the other boy's hand touched the doorframe, like he'd been about to come in, but had stopped.

"You didn't deserve that. You're too perfect to deserve that."

"Hah. I'm lazy, Heero. I'm lazy and it was so god damned easy to sit there and just fucking take it." Duo wasn't angry at Heero. He was angry at himself, and the idea of perfection within himself...how ridiculous. He wasn't a goldfish pond. He wasn't a mirror, or a diamond, and he certainly wasn't an angel. Angel of death, maybe...but that didn't bring perfection to mind.

"Duo." Heero was kneeling next to him...How did he move so silently? His hands were on Duo's cheeks, making him look at the other. Heero pressed their heads together, foreheads touching, noses brushing, eye to eye exactly. And Heero smiled that soft smile Duo seemed to remember from just before their first kiss. But there were no lips suddenly pressed to his, just a simple lack of motion. "This is a very hard place to get to. A lazy man could never find it." And then he took Duo's hand and pulled the other up, still smiling. Duo thought that maybe, if Heero kept holding that expression, his face might crack.

"I'm...going to go lie down, I think."

"Okay. Quatre said that he would come over later with WuFei and Trowa."

"Roger that."

oOoOoOoOoOo

"Heero, you did the right thing." WuFei nodded solemnly, placing a hand on the other's shoulder. Heero nodded in return. That tension still lingered, and everyone seemed to feel it.

"Is he okay?" Quatre was nervously tapping his foot against the coffee table, holding a glass of water in his hands. "Is it okay to go in and see him?"

"It isn't a hospital, Quatre." Trowa opened the door to Heero's room, nudging the blond boy forward. Duo rested on the bed, bangs falling in his eyes like a curtain. Brown against purple against white, and he looked like a broken doll. The leaking ice pack was still on the floor, and a puddle had spread around it. Quatre sidestepped it on his way to the bedside table, where he put the water down with a soft sound it is only possible to make if one is attempting to be very quiet. Duo didn't move, and Quatre sighed, afraid to disturb him. Heero bent down, shaking Duo gently.

"Duo, wake up. We're all here." Duo's good eye came slowly open, and he immediately plastered a grin on his face when he caught sight of Wufei's tight-lipped expression.

"If I didn't know any better, Wufei, I'd say you liked to see me bruised up." A laugh, and Duo put a hand to his bound ribs as he sat up.

"We'll kill that bastard." The Chinese boy, usually somewhat more reserved, actually growled it out. He felt responsible. After all, he had never stopped Michael, even though he had always known.

"No. Don't worry about it, really. I'm okay." Duo shrugged. "See? Now, if I couldn't sit up, there'd be a problem for you to worry about. After all, which one of you lucky goons would get to spoonfeed me?"

Wufei's concern seemed to melt a little. "You're an idiot."

"Not just any idiot, Wufei." Trowa cracked a smile. "The genuine article." The lanky teen was sitting in Heero's desk chair, lounged back with his foot on the cushion. Quatre still looked worried, despite the jokes, and played with the corner of the sheet while he sat beside Duo.

"Well, what're we all sitting around here for, anyway? Let's go do something! I mean, it IS Sunday...aren't there old people to throw water balloons at or something? A movie to go to? A pizza joint that we should immediately run off to so as to eat it out of house and home? I know Heero can't afford to keep me up much longer. I mean, he fed me breakfast, but I wasn't hungry then...now, I'm...I'm...**voracious**!

oOoOoOoOoOo

Quatre watched in transfixed horror as Duo shoveled pizza into his mouth. All of it. Wasn't Duo supposed to be hurt? And yet, there he sat, somehow finding room to both stuff pizza in and still speak. It was like a miracle, only much more disgusting. Not to say that Duo was a messy eater. No, far from it. To let even a teaspoon of sauce somehow not manage to get into his mouth would be a travesty. But to just consider the sheer volume of his stomach– it would make even the winner of the international hotdog eating contest cringe.

Heero, Wufei , and Trowa didn't seem to mind Duo at all, and their conversation only stopped when Duo's shoveling got in the way of _their_ hands reaching for a slice. Quatre had almost lost his appetite when Duo stopped, looked up at him, and then offered him a slice.

"Uh. Sure?" As though afraid that accepting would get him bitten. Duo merely gave him the last piece of the large pepperoni-sausage-bacon-ham-green pepper-you-know-what-why-don't-we-make-it-an-everything pizza and then went back to his own slice. He obviously wasn't hungry anymore, since his speed was reduced to that of the average hungry human being. "You eat really, really fast."

Heero raised an eyebrow in an incredulous way.

"It took you this long to notice?"

Trowa laughed under his breath, and Duo stopped pulling at his cheese long enough to shoot a glare at Heero.

"Is it my fault you didn't feed me?"

"I gave you enough protein to last someone your size a whole day."

"Yeah, well, I guess you miscalculated, math-boy." Duo stuck his tongue out.

"Six eggs."

"What?"

"You ate six eggs this morning. Six. The recommended serving is only two."

"I coulda told you that wasn't enough." Duo shrugged, even though he'd been full. He could have eaten more.

"How are you so little?" Quatre poked at Duo's side, felt Duo tense, and then quickly pulled his hands up into the air. "I'm sorry! I forgot! Did it hurt?"

Duo waved Quatre off, grinning and trying to breathe slowly. "I'm fine." Heero moved over to sit beside him, gingerly pulling up his shirt to inspect the gauze and tape he'd wrapped around Duo's ribs. "Hey, it's a good thing I'm in the corner, hmm? Otherwise all the patrons'd get to see you feeling me u..hssss." Heero pulled on the gauze with one hand, his other resting firmly on Duo's stomach. "Does it really have to be tighter?" Duo's voice sounded choked, so Heero loosened the bandages.

"Don't move so much." He frowned, looking at the mess that Duo's skin was. "You're bleeding from a cut on your side. I should reapply the bandages."

"In public?" Duo was gripping the table, and after all the poking, felt about ready to throw up all the wonderful pizza.

"I'll take you home." Heero pulled Duo's shirt back down, his fingers quite intentionally ghosting over Duo's chest. The brunette hissed again.

"Does it hurt a lot?" Quatre was worried again, while Wufei and Trowa tried hard not to laugh.

"Oh, you know...just the first time." Trowa's smirk intensified when Duo shot him a glare identical to the one he'd shot Heero before.

oOoOoOoOoOo

"If you didn't wiggle so much, you wouldn't tear the scabs apart, and you wouldn't bleed." Heero was leaning across Duo's bare stomach to get to the drawer in the bedside table. Duo was trying not to enjoy the fact that Heero's hand was on his chest again.

"Yeah."

"You sound like you can't breathe. Are you okay?" Heero pulled back with gauze and tape in hand.

"..yeah." Duo breathed in as deeply as he could, then exhaled slowly, just to prove he was alright. Heero then began poking Duo, running his hands all over the other's chest and stomach.

"Does this hurt?"

"No."

"This?"

"No."

"This?"

"No!"

"This?"

"Nngh..." Duo moaned when Heero got to his hip, the other boy's fingers sliding over the curve of the bone slowly.

"Should I take that as a 'no'?" Heero grinned. Duo flushed bright red, propping himself up on his elbows.

"I–You...You did that on purpose!"

"You're having problems breathing again...your voice is uneven."

"Who made you a doctor, you damn ha–" Duo stopped short by Heero's lips pressed hard against his own, the other's tongue running over his teeth and the roof of his mouth so slowly. Heero's hands were in his hair, and for a moment, Duo just sat completely still. Then he sat up all the way and flipped Heero on his back, climbing on top of the other.

"Don't hurt yourself." Heero cautioned as he grabbed Duo's chin, pulling the other down to him. Duo's hands went to Heero's shoulders, and he pulled himself even closer than he had intended. It hurt, and the angles of Heero's body dug into still-livid bruises, but the taste of Heero was worth a thousand times the amount of pain he was feeling. Duo slid his hands along Heero's sides, resting them on his hips, then pulled back from the other's lips. They were wet, and a crushed roses color.

"Was that supposed to be CPR?"


End file.
